I may hate it, but I’m the person who handles finances in this family. Kind of seems to make sense since I’m home full time. I was kind of freaked out at first- I mean, what if I messed up? But I was determined. As with all things- hey, guess what? I’m NOT PERFECT!! But I can handle the finances. (I still hate it).

We women NEED to be able to handle our own finances. Lots of money or little money, we have to know how to budget and handle money. I’d much prefer someone did it for me- but what if something happened and suddenly I was left to handle things on my own? That could be disastrous! In no particular order, here are some tips to help women manage finances:

1. Educate yourself. Don’t know how to balance a checkbook? Find out how. Get a book. Check a tutorial online. Ask your bank. Ask a friend. Learn what to do with your money and where to put it, no matter how much.

2. Know your income. From $100 a week to $10,000 a week/month/year, you need to know what money is going to be coming INTO your family. At least a ballpark. You aren’t going to get far without knowing!

3. Know your expenses. There are certain things that you likely spend money on each month- for us- mortgage, gas for vehicles, electricity, cable, internet, phone, food. There are also “regular” expenditures that won’t be monthly but you can count on incurring- like car insurance payments (we pay 1x/year because I can’t stand to give $4 a month to a company for absolutely no reason and want to keep my $48 in my pocket), heating oil, property taxes, etc. It isn’t that you have to know the exact dollar amount of these, but having at least a general ballpark figure will help you to make a plan. Which brings me to item 4.

4. Have a plan. You can call it what you want- a budget, money plan, I don’t care what it is. But have a plan. Then, live within that plan. For us, our plan is that we pay bills off in full each time they come in. Period. We actually put anything and everything we can onto one particular card- we accrue reward points/moneys that benefit us and we pay it off monthly. Win, win. Part of that plan is a deposit into a savings account. Even if it’s $5 a week, something goes into savings.

5. Stay organized. Keep records. You need to be able to find things and reference them- and if anything happens, you’ve got it already set aside.

Articles like this one on Women and Money from Time Magazine are also great resources for information about women and money.

I hear alot of people say, don’t use credit cards. The whole reason they say this is to avoid paying interest on monthly payments. However you need to establish a good credit score, and credit cards are the easiest way to do that. You just have to make sure you have the money to pay it off each month and not get interest charged. You can go charge, say $30 at Walmart, then pay it off when the bill comes. Some retailers even give the credit cards for free with no annual payment to have them. I think Fashion Bug and Roamans do this. You could go in and charge a scarf or blouse for 15.00 and pay it off when the credit card bill comes. That’s how I built up my credit score, and NO it’s not easy but you have to pay for the item anyway so why pay interest on it?

I completely agree that women need to be able to handle their own finances! These are REALLY good tips, especially number three. I used to let my fiance do everything but ever since I stepped in, we have been able to start saving for the first time. lol

i def. agree, knowing your expenses is a huge must especially those big ones such as car insurance, house insurance and property tax. those come up every year about the same time and they are big ones for us.

I read something recently about women and finances that questioned a woman’s ability to manage money. I call BS on that! Even if it is the man who works fulltime, who is that knows–in detail!–*exactly* how much the groceries, the kids’ clothes, the extra-curricular fees, the pediatrician, the dentist costs? We do! We know the good price to look for a Barbie doll or a train set! So, yes, we do need to be educated and learn to make plans, but we can do this thing even better than the men.

This is a GREAT post with some really helpful suggestions. Women should always be aware of the finances and how to buget. You never know if and when you will be left alone, and it is very important to have experience with money management.

I think it is extremely important for women to manage their finances carefully. I have seen too many women depend on their husbands for their financial security and become both emotionally and financially devestated when the husband either passes away or is no longer in the picture.

I know I have to keep an eye out on my expenses because since I do only onilne billing and statements, I really don’t know what I’m getting charged and one time I looked at my cable bill and saw that I was getting charged for the German language channels. WHAT!!!! how did that happen?

It is so important that women understand how to manage their finances for themselves, their families and to set good role models for their children. I am starting to teach my daughter about the value of money, and I hope to lay the building blocks for the tips you outlined above.

When my husband passed away I did not know how to manage our household finances since he always did it – it was very hard at first but now I am doing well. Everyone should be able to handle money matters

I think it is extremely important for women to manage their finances carefully. I have seen too many women depend on their husbands for their financial security and become both emotionally and financially devestated when the husband either passes away or is no longer in the picture.